Persistence of Vision (episode)
:You may be looking for Persistence of Vision Digital Entertainment. Voyager crew members experience disturbing and violent hallucinations. Summary B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim try to create a makeshift holo-projector so The Doctor can materialize in Engineering. However, it only makes his image appear as a few inches tall. A very stressed Captain Janeway is ordered to take some time off in a holodeck by the Doctor as per Starfleet regulations that in the absence of a counselor, the ship's doctor takes over. While she's there running Janeway Lambda one, the plot diverges from the original story, and Lord Burleigh professes his undying love for her. Back on the bridge, a Botha vessel is approaching. Janeway is called to the bridge, where Neelix explains that the Botha are not very welcoming to visitors. The alien ship hails them, and they are confronted by a figure obscured by bright light. Janeway goes to lunch in the mess hall, where Neelix is cooking. Janeway sees a plate of cucumber sandwiches, the same one she saw in the Holodeck. Neelix then serves her tea in the flower cup one of the girls in her program broke. Janeway goes to Engineering to investigate these strange occurrences. She has Ensign Kim and Lieutenant Torres run a diagnostic on the Holodeck systems. Nothing out of the ordinary is found. Janeway goes to sickbay, where the Captain tells The Doctor that she's been seeing images from the holodeck around the ship, mostly of the little girl from her holonovel. While she's there, she experiences another hallucination, but this time Kes sees it too; the little girl appears, but then seems to travel towards and into the Captain. The Doctor tells the Captain to go to her quarters and get some rest. Inside her quarters, the Captain hears her fiancé Mark's voice speaking, but cannot find it. She opens the hallway door, and sees Mrs. Templeton with a knife she uses to try to kill Janeway. Janeway calls for security and is suddenly seen in sickbay, fighting with Tuvok instead of Mrs. Templeton. Janeway is hallucinating again. Kes says that she can again see the hallucination as well. Janeway hands over command to Commander Chakotay as a precaution. The Botha ship hails Voyager. The man Janeway spoke with earlier demands to know their intentions, what types of weapons they have and their defensive capabilities. Tuvok interrupts the conversation with a warning that two cloaked ships have been detected flanking Voyager. The vessels de-cloak and start firing on Voyager. Ensign Kim notices that the other vessels are being controlled by the lead ship. Voyager s shields are penetrated, and the Botha being orders their surrender. Janeway returns to the Bridge and demands to see who the alien really is, and is confronted by an image of her fiancé, Mark. The other bridge staff, however, are surprised to see close relatives instead. Tuvok sees his wife (T'Pel), Tom Paris sees his father. Tuvok becomes unresponsive and carried away by his hallucination, and very soon everyone on the bridge is affected, including the Captain. Lieutenant Torres is in Engineering, attempting to discover the cause of the hallucinations. Her theory involves creating a symmetric warp field to block the effects. However, she is carried away by a hallucination concerning her hidden affection for Commander Chakotay before she manages to finish the work. Soon, everyone on the ship is catatonic, apart from Kes and The Doctor. They decide to attempt to finish Torres' work. Kes heads to Engineering, and is almost diverted by a hallucination of Tom Paris with heavy plasma burns. However, she focuses on the job, and continues on her way. In Engineering, she manages to communicate with the Doctor, and they attempt to create the warp field. However, a hallucination of Neelix arrives, and tries to stop her, first with reasoning, then with painful hallucinations about her face blistering and burning. The Doctor tells her to concentrate, and look at Neelix to send the hallucination back to him. This works, and the fake Neelix falls to the ground in agony, and reverts back to his real form (the Botha alien). Kes is successful in establishing the warp field, and everyone is woken from their catatonic state. The Botha recovers, but then vanishes, along with the other ships, leaving the crew wondering if he was ever with them or not. Log Entries *''Captain's log, supplemental. We have no explanation for the mysterious disappearance of the telepathic alien. We can't even be certain that he was actually here. He seems to have left us with any number of unanswered questions. '' Memorable Quotes "You're a powerful little thing." :- Botha Alien, speaking about Kes "I'd really like to accommodate you, but you see...I'm not really here." :- Botha Alien, when confronted by Captain Janeway "It's not even tempting." :- Tom Paris to Captain Janeway when his father shouts at him from the view screen Background Information Story Development, Cast and Effects *Executive producer Jeri Taylor had been eager to do this episode since the first season of Star Trek: Voyager but was opposed to doing so by Paramount studio executives. She recalled, "It was a show that I had wanted to do since last year. I got a great deal of opposition from the studio, in both story and script form. They thought it was a very soft story and they just didn't get it. They want more fights and more aliens. They weren't high on this at all and didn't want it to appear as early in the year as it did." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) *Lindsey Haun, who played Beatrice Burleigh in both this episode and , would later play Belle in . *The Botha alien uses a Kazon ship as one of his illusionary vessels. The other illusionary ship is not identified. However, the oft-reused studio model for the Talarian observation craft was used for the unidentified craft here and, this time, it was redressed with a purple glow from its nacelles. Continuity *According to Jeri Taylor, this episode "began Janeway on a journey she needs to take, which is resolving the matter of her lover, Mark." Taylor added, "We cannot put her into romantic situations until she decides he has given her up for dead and moved on, and the only wise thing for her to do is the same." {Where No One Has Gone Before) *"Persistence of Vision" was also the working title for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season two episode . *This is the third of three episodes that feature Janeway's Gothic holonovel. The holonovel had originally been developed for but was not shown onscreen until . (A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager) It had subsequently appeared in . Of the holonovel, Jeri Taylor stated, "In my heart I would like to see Janeway sort of finish this novel and start another one next season. Whether that will happen, I cannot say. We may return to a different holonovel for her, but ... I thought it was great fun .... We wrote a conclusion in which everything got knitted up, because I thought it was a shame to just leave it." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) The follow-up conclusion to the Gothic holonovel was ultimately never produced, however. *This is the only episode of the series to address B'Elanna's attraction to Chakotay. However, the issue is additionally raised in the novel Pathways by Jeri Taylor, the same person who wrote this episode. *The color of the warp core changes in this episode from a pinkish-blue to a whitish-blue and stays this way until the end of the series. Reception * Once this episode was produced, the initial fears of the Paramount studio executives were put to rest. "It got made and everybody loved it," Jeri Taylor remembered. "Then we got all the phone calls that said, 'Wow, that turned out well.' I knew it was going to work. I may be wrong about this, but it was the first show of the season that got a little buzz coming from the audience." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) * However, one element that did not garner so much audience appreciation was Janeway's holonovel. In fact, the lack of appreciation for the Gothic simulation was the reason it did not continue after this episode. Jeri Taylor remarked, "That was one of those things that we were not getting the feedback from the fans that seemed to justify its continuing. A lot of people had problems with Janeway being in what would be considered a servile position. A lot of people just aren't fans, as I am, of Gothic novels and just sort of didn't get it." Taylor subsequently remarked that, although she had enjoyed the holonovel, she was "never afraid to cut our losses if something isn't working." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) *This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series (along with ). Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 2.2, . *As part of the VOY Season 2 DVD collection. Links and references Starring *Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway Also starring *Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay *Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres *Jennifer Lien as Kes *Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris *Ethan Phillips as Neelix *Robert Picardo as The Doctor *Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok *Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim Guest Stars *Michael Cumpsty as Lord Burleigh *Carolyn Seymour as Mrs. Templeton *Stan Ivar as Mark Hobbes Johnson *Warren Munson as Owen Paris *Lindsey Haun as Beatrice Burleigh *Thomas Dekker as Henry Burleigh *Patrick Kerr as Bothan Inflitrator *Marva Hicks as T'Pel Co-Star *Majel Barrett as Computer Voice Uncredited Co-Stars *Richard Sarstedt as William McKenzie *Tarik Ergin as Ayala *Louis Ortiz as Culhane *Kerry Hoyt as Fitzpatrick References Ashmore; biogenic field; Botha; coffee; ice cream; cucumber sandwich; electrolyte; fried murt cake; Janeway Lambda one; Davenport, Lucie; Engineering; Lieutenant Hargrove; holonovel; holo-projector; Johnson, Mark; Kazon; Libby; magnetic plasma constriction; Mithren; Mollie; Mozart; niccel strips; piano; psionic field; Seltin pâté; Seltin wood fungus; Starfleet's interactive database; telepathy; vegetable bouillon; Vulcan; Vulcan lute; wood throk |next= }} de:Rätselhafte Visionen es:Persistence of Vision fr:Persistence of Vision nl:Persistence of Vision Category:VOY episodes